The phase diagram of QCD
Simple thermodynamic reasoning is used to argue that at temperatures of the order of a trillion kelvin, QCD, the theory which describes strongly interacting particles such as protons and neutrons under normal conditions, undergoes a phase transition to a plasma of more elementary constituents called quarks and gluons. A review is presented of what is known about the plasma phase both from theoretical calculations and from experiments involving the collisions of large atomic nuclei moving at relativistic speeds. Finally the behaviour of nuclear material under conditions of extreme density is considered, and possible exotic phenomena such as quark matter and colour superconductivity are discussed.
Document Type: Research Article
Publication date: 01 July 2001
- Editorial Board
- Information for Authors
- Subscribe to this Title
- Ingenta Connect is not responsible for the content or availability of external websites
- Access Key
- Free content
- Partial Free content
- New content
- Open access content
- Partial Open access content
- Subscribed content
- Partial Subscribed content
- Free trial content